| Children growing up in Chorleywood throughout the 20th century may first have entered the grounds for a village fete, school fair, donkey derby or other popular event hosted there. Harvest festivals first used the estate for gatherings from the late 19th century onwards and the tradition continued throughout its private and public ownership.
Lady Ela Russell, who bought the Chorleywood House estate in 1892, modelled the grounds largely to the layout we still see today. Near to the house, she had formal gardens laid out with lawns, flowerbeds and specialty trees. Nowadays the Victorian glory of the gardens is being restored with work taking place on the Sunken Garden, the Wisteria Circle and the historic buildings dotted around. The Chorleywood Dell Nature Reserve is also now receiving the care and attention it deserves. |
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As well as their natural beauty, the Chorleywood House grounds are home to many community groups and facilities. There are public tennis courts, the separate Chorleywood Lawn Tennis Club has its own six floodlit courts, three pitches and a pavilion used by the Chorleywood Common Youth Football Club and the Chorleywood Youth Club. |
 The House in spring |
 The five trunked cedar tree |
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Orchard
Maps from the nineteenth century show many orchards around Chorleywood. Most have disappeared under buildings, though the names remain such as Orchard Drive, Cherry Tree Lane. Now a local group, the Chorleywood Community Orchard, together with Three Rivers DC and the Countryside Management Service, is re-creating an orchard in the grounds of Chorleywood House, where the first 24 apple trees were planted in February 2009. The Orchard is situated next to the Lawns Cemetery, entrance through the large iron gate in Lady Ela Drive. New members of the group are welcome – see their website: http://chorleywoodorchard.org.uk/.
Dell Mound
When the Chorleywood UDC was located in Chorleywood House, an area of woodland was used as the council’s rubbish tip. A large mound arose, and even after the UDC was devolved and a new site for refuse was found, fly-tippers continued to dump mattresses and electrical goods and all manner of rubbish there.
In 1998 the Estate was given a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for improvements, and one task was to remove the large unsightly items from the mound, cover it with topsoil and plant trees. These have flourished, but so have the plants around the trees. There was a lot of hemlock, nettle and bramble, but a joint attack by Three Rivers and the volunteer working party is making it more hospitable. Over the winter, volunteers have been growing wildflower seeds, which have now been planted out and we hope will produce some colour through the summer. Dell Mound is next to the carpark at the end of Lady Ela Drive.
There is a Scout Camp nestled in the woods and the Chorleywood Parish Council offices are located in the South Lodge.
The Lawn Cemetery of Remembrance was inaugurated by the Urban District Council in the early 1950s and was extended in the 1990s.
The former Field Study Centre is now a Montessori school.
A leaflet describing things to do and see in the grounds of the Chorleywood House Estate, plus some circular walks, is available for download as a PDF file (800k).
PICTURE CARDS FOR SALE
You can buy photographs of Chorleywood House grounds as notelet cards with envelopes at £1 each or £5 for a set of 8 different pictures. Available from Tim Venner at Fairlight, Shire Lane, Chorleywood WD3 5NR, phone 01923 284320, or e-mail via the Contact Us page, and also from the Post Office in Lower Road, Chorleywood.